"Celebrate the season with the treat that embodies summer fun (cotton candy) in the form of chilly ice cream. Cool off while enjoying a nostalgic sugar high!"

Now that we’re more than half way through June, how are you guys doing?

Are the kids out of school?

Are you looking forward to a vacation?

Are you absolutely melting in the heat outside?

Cause I gotta be honest, I’m living behind door number three.

Phoenix summer are always brutal – because, well, it’s Phoenix – but lately it’s been exceptionally bad, like living-three-inches-off-the-surface-of-the-sun kinda bad. This means I’ve been spending lots of quality time with our air conditioning, but in the evenings I still like to venture out for 30 seconds a few minutes and watch the dogs play. However, while I wait for the dogs to quickly tire in the sticky heat it always felt like something was… missing. Like I needed something more to counter the residual heat that still lingered even though the sun went down other than the promise that I’ll soon be back inside.

And being the foodie that I am, of course I felt like this “something” should be a food. And of course I wanted said food to be deliciously indulgent. Like, say, ice cream for example. That would be a perfect fit. And better yet, it could be ice cream made into delicious and unique new flavors.

So, I guess what I’m really trying to say here is that I bought an ice cream maker because it’s hot outside.

There’s just something about cotton candy flavored anything that embodies the joyfulness of summer, and since it’s a little hard to forget just what season we’re currently “enjoying,” I figured giving this cool treat the nostalgia treatment would be oh-so fitting.

As I mentioned above, this was also the first time I made “real” ice cream at home, and I have to say I was surprised – surprised by how easy the recipe was to put together, surprised by how easy the ice cream maker was to use, and surprised by just how good the ice cream tasted. I know there are much more fancy and complicated ways to make ice cream, but I really had no idea just how much extra I was paying per carton for something I could easily make at home with my own ingredients.

Lesson learned, yet again: making your favorite foods at home is always so much better.

notes & tips for this cotton candy ice cream

Whenever I make this recipe, I use this cotton candy syrup. It’s pink in color, but this doesn’t have a huge impact on the final color and is easily covered with food coloring. If you’d rather use a syrup with a blue hue, there is this blue cotton candy syrup, but it does cost more. Either syrup would work in this recipe, so pick whichever one you like!

If you like the ice cream scoop in the video, it’s a Zeroll brand scoop. They have heat conductive fluid sealed within the handle which makes your grip on the scoop warm the head of the scoop. This makes it so the scoop cuts through and rolls up ice cream better. You don’t even need to heat or wet the scoop first!

Pour vanilla, heavy whipping cream, and cotton candy syrup into the bowl and whisk until combined.

If using food coloring: Depending on the brand of cotton candy syrup you used, the mixture might already have a pink hue. If you'd like the ice cream to be pink, keep this in mind - you won't need to add much pink food coloring to get your desired color. If you'd like the ice cream to be another color than pink, don't worry - as pictured, I used blue food coloring, and only had to add a few drops to achieve a nice light blue color. No matter what color you're using, add the food coloring slowly (one drop at a time) and whisk thoroughly between each until the desired color is reached. Also, the hue of the cream should be a few shades darker than the color you'd like the final ice cream to be, as the whipped and frozen cream will appear lighter. TIP: If you're still worried how your chosen color will look, add a little bit of the cotton candy syrup and milk to a separate glass or bowl and test your food coloring with it.

Recipe Notes

If you make this recipe, be sure to hashtag it #HomemadeHooplah! I'd love to see what you cook!

Please keep in mind that I'm not a certified nutritionist; I am just a quirky girl who loves to eat. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values. If nutritional information is important to you and your diet, please verify this recipe with your favorite nutrition calculator.

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About Chrisy

I'm a small-town girl living in a big city who wants to eat everything she sees on Pinterest. I also enjoy hanging out with my herd of small dogs, binge-watching Netflix, and playing online games. READ MORE

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Cotton candy syrup? How have I not known about this?! What a fabulous treat (I had to share this on my FB page)! I’m in love with how fun this is! I’m in the crazy-ridic Phoenix heat, too, so this is perfect for…every night!

Cotton candy ice cream? This is seriously blowing my mind right now. I love cotton candy, but never imagined trying it in ice cream form. I am so glad you decided to go this route with your first ice cream recipe… and I am even mooooore happy that you are sharing that with all of us during Ice Cream Week! xx

I bought a buffalo brand icecream machine from Nesbitt in London. Cost over £150, is rather bulky but churns out great icecream. My daughter made coconut icecream a couple of days ago, added coconut milk, flavouring and essence ????